Plant gossips… are almost cotton!

Berry Go Round, end of summer

Welcome to the 31th edition of BGR. Previous installation is over there at Brainripples. Next edition will be hosted at oh! maybe there. What do you think?

Despite summertime is usually the season blogging becomes difficult for various reasons, from vacations to field season, there’s been a lot of plant blogging this month, and quite a diversity of themes, that I arranged in easy boxes… Now pick yours!

Biotopes:

There were several post involving vegetations this month, or say, biotopes, depending on your own inclination (if you’re favoring the place you’re in or the plants growing where you are). So let’s discover what’s up to these various places…

Ecology:

Huh. Do we need a disclaimer that current Botany rejected Lichens on the ground that they are not considered plants anymore? Well, as long as there isn’t a specific carnival for lichen maniacs, and since symbioses are welcome here, so let’s keep funguys among us. Learn more about leakens and how they’re precious tools to stone & rock maniacs: Botany for Geologist: Lichenology, at History of Geology.

Plant species:

Give singular species their share of time:

Another game this month, this time in the species category. It’s all about Cassava and history, there at Biodiversity Agricultural Weblog. Since we’re at it, and because I both didn’t blog anything this month and nobody cared about it at first, I reiterate my previous’ month own game about potato varieties.

A very special mintkin, the Lemon Bee Palm, at Information Central Photography: “The lemon bee balm (Monarda citriodora) looks like it was designed by the same committee that came up with the camel“. Maybe not so dramatic as formulated there, but that’s true that the plant is fascinating in many ways. Have a look at the picture, especially the wonderful purple bracts…

Wonderful pictures and post on Sedum pulchellum, at Beetles in the Bush. Also called widowscross, this plant belongs to the Crassulaceae – the same family as the familiar jade houseplant, and really, you’ll love its star branching inflorescence (you can even count the number of inflo “branching”, and it even seems correlated with ramet size). But don’t go nut’ all! (for Ted didn’t).

Or learn about an ancient vegetable, the Spiked Star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum pyrenaicum), at 10 000 Birds. In the latest Red List of UK plants it’s listed as nationally scarce and thus is considered endangered. I’ve found a population last year, and it really has very pale flowers but they cannot be missed in the understorey at flowering peak (mine were greenier according to my memory, I guess this is natural variation at play).

[…] carnivals are hosted at various blogs, but at the end of August, Laurent returned with Berry Go Round #31. I found lots to enjoy there, not the least being Laurent’s fun prose. Because I grew up in a […]

[…] carnival over at Seeds Aside. For some fun and inspiration, have a look at some of the other Berry Go Rounds hosted at Seeds Aside. You have until April 26th to get your plant-loving posts submitted. And if […]